NBN project whistle-blower develops app vs theft

MANILA, Philippines - The former star whistleblower in the national broadband network (NBN) project scandal at the time of former president and now jailed Pampanga congresswoman Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is back in his area of expertise – communications and information technology (IT).

Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr., an electronics and communications engineer, has developed a mobile phone app called Theft Apprehension and Recovery Application (TARA) that could discourage cellular phone robbery and theft.

Lozada worked in executive and management positions in IBM and Alcatel before he joined the Arroyo administration as president of the Philippine Forest Corp. (PhiForest).

He explained TARA will render a stolen cellphone unusable by thief or robber through a “kill-switch” feature that will prevent the cellphone’s brain from functioning again.

Lozada, an electronic and communications engineering graduate of the University of Santo Tomas, said the kill-switch feature was designed especially for Filipinos, many of whom only use their cellphones for calls and texts, and not mobile data.

He said the feature also protects the user from having their phone number directory and private files such as photos and videos get into the hands of thieves.

“The only way we can do that is with a kill-switch,” Lozada told The STAR in a phone interview.

He said one can lock the stolen phone with a text message or call a call center to have his or her phone deactivated.

TARA would render the mobile phone unit useless even if the SIM card is removed or replaced, or memory is reformatted or erased, he said.

“One of the most important things to do for somebody who had his cell phone stolen is to wipe out the data, private photos and videos,” Lozada said.

“Many (sex video) scandals that have erupted are from stolen gadgets.”

He stressed there were also a number of cases where cell phone thieves even try to victimize close relatives of owners of stolen gadgets. Lozada said he developed TARA accidentally when a need for a kill-switch app for stolen gadgets cropped up in a project he was working on in De La Salle Greenhills.

He is implementing a program for the digital delivery of education using tablet computers for each student in classrooms.

Parents of students, he said, have expressed concern over their children lugging around their tablet computers with them, and being exposed to thieves and robbers.